Stop

It has been something of a source of frustration for me ever since I was a child, that in one lifetime you can only touch a fraction of all that there is to be explored and known about in the world.  I have always had the sense that my experience is a mere postage-stamp-sized piece on the great postcard of life.

It was with something of that in mind that one day I stopped and really looked at this swing bridge.  Spanning the Leeds-Liverpool Canal just above Hirst Lock, it (or its predecessor) has carried traffic to the little mill beside the river for years and now to the few houses on that side of the canal.  I pass it so often that I hardly notice it, but in fact - small though it is - it is a piece of precision engineering.  It's designed to swing to the side to allow boats through, so every piece must fit together perfectly.  (See also here)

There must be someone somewhere who knows everything there is to know about bridges like this... I wonder what it must feel like, to be someone who knows everything there is to know about bridges like this....  Not that I want to be that person, but it remains a source of amazement and delight to me that people can be so different - aptitudes, skills, experiences, life stories.  Maybe that's part of why I enjoy blogging, because it allows me to glimpse some of the othernesses in the world.  It makes me stop and notice and think.